Unlike so many conservative comments, the issue is not the voter, or voter ID. There already are photo-ID laws in place, that’s not new. What this bill does is put barriers in the way of local voter registration efforts, efforts that not surprisingly are aimed at getting the unregistered and often poor voter on the rolls. Voter registration efforts can often be messy, as Mary Hollinrake notes. The downside of course, is that not registering voters further increases distance between the poor and their government. Not especially a good outcome.

This sort of restriction is a commonplace among conservative legislative agendas since after all the poor do have that unfortunate tendency to not vote for Republicans.